Testing and Biking: Part 3 – Importance of investment

Last week on my way home from office I was cruising at around 80 kmph on my motor bike and then THUD. The next moment I felt severe pain on the left side of my head, my palms felt scalded, and I could not stand properly because my left toe hurt. Got up slowly tried thinking over what happened. The pictures started falling in place and I realized I have met with an accident. I removed my helmet – no bleeding. Good. Next removed the riding gloves – palms looked well. Checked my foot, and my toe was bleeding. I wore a Canvas shoes damn! Tried to lift my bike and it was a mess – a broken mirror, sari guard bent, connecting rod to the rear suspension was cut. Some how managed to ride back home. At home after relaxing a few minutes I started looking at the damage on my helmet and the gloves I wore. The scrapes on my helmet and riding gloves gave me goose bumps. The left side of the helmet was a mess with loads of scratches and when I run my finger over it I could feel the impact the helmet had taken. The gloves well, in simple words I could type today because I wore them. This made me wonder

  • What if I did not wear a helmet?
  • What if I did not wear riding gloves?
  • What if I had invested in a sub-standard helmet or gloves only because it was cheaper?
  • What if I had stopped wearing them because many made fun of me, since I shelled out a good amount of money on it?

Well, I thanked myself for investing in the best riding gear. The investment just saved my life.

Is there some thing here that could this be related to all aspects of our life?

What about testing? …

I remember the day when I wanted to attend Pradeep Soundararajan’s RST workshop but felt the workshop was expensive. I had a feeling that this workshop could change me for good as a tester after interacting with him once over coffee and reading his blog posts. But I come from a middle class family and to shell out 7k for a 1day workshop on testing looked huge to me.

But, today when I look back at the whole episode, I feel happy that my investment in the workshop has fetched me more than I could ever expect from a one day workshop and I am sure the skills developed from it would continue to take me forward in my career.

There are many times when we think if investing our time and hard earned money in a workshop or conference or training or certification worth it. Well we might not know the answer to this the very day or at the end of the workshop but I am sure there would be a day when the skills developed from such events/workshops will be evident.

So go ahead invest on learning and I am sure you will reap the benefits if not today some time in the near future.

Comments

Selim Mia said…
Nice inspirational post!! Employed good example to inspire testers to invest on learning :)

- Selim
Thanks Selim.
"Example" - was a true eye opener for me.
I feel workshops, peer conferences, study groups, conferences, trainings, certifications, books, etc are important for a tester as riding gears, air bags, ABS, roll cage, for bikers and riders. They could save ones (testers or bikers) life.

-Sharath
Santhosh Tuppad said…
Good post Sharath. You are right that investment is a MUST for learning. But, nowadays people get exposed to bad people first who take money and do not provide any learning and they have lost trust in investing money to attend training because they had a bad experience before. But, I am seeing the change happening nowadays as some people know what to invest on and what not to. I hope this change happens rapidly.

I would like to share my experience about Michael Bolton's workshop on RST.

On the first day I had to pay amount in order to attend Michael Bolton's workshop on RST. I was asking for discount outside the venue and I was few minutes late. Then sales guy was telling no, discount cannot be given. Then, I thought about the value versus few INR. Then, I just wrote a cheque and got inside because I did not want to miss value from the workshop.

Tweet - Retweet this post. Keep it up.

Cheers,
Santhosh Shivanand Tuppad
PSK said…
While the key message may be a good takeaway ... more importantly I am glad you escaped less hurt ... god bless ...

I guess investing in attaining skills (for a start just an investment with a promise) is one thing ... and implementing the "learnings/takeaways/derivatives" (which makes the investment a good investment if you get any of these ) in any professional/personal context and deriving/delivering value is another. While time for returns is a varibale I am glad you could get your returns faster.

On a ligher note, do you consider a safer 4 wheeler a good investment now? ;-)
@Santosh Yes it's very important for one to evaluate before he invests. As in all other fields there will be good and not so good trainings, workshops, etc, but I guess one could get better at identifying them when they do it.

Tweet, retweeting I am yet to learn :(

@PSK: Excellent point when you say "I guess investing in attaining skills (for a start just an investment with a promise) is one thing ... and implementing the "learnings/takeaways/derivatives" (which makes the investment a good investment if you get any of these ) in any professional/personal context and deriving/delivering value is another." . Completely agree with you. Without one's effort to implement the learning's its dumb to expect any value of a investment.

On a ligher note, do you consider a safer 4 wheeler a good investment now? ;-)

A tough decision for a biker but yes with the traffic these days I am planning to use my car regularly in city and ride my bike on highways:)

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